Xbox |OT|

[Ryuu96]

G2ThaUNiT said:

Ryuu96 said:

Tbf Klob didn't label it as 1st party, he said Xbox Studios which is accurate, Xbox Game Studios Publishing comes under Xbox Game Studios and they are the ones who are publishing Ninja Gaiden 4 and XGSP isn't just "Here's some money now go make this" but a team consisting of around 200 developers of all varieties, from creative directors to writers to tech, etc.

So it's not 1st party as Microsoft doesn't own the IP but it is an Xbox Studios project. As for what that is called, gamers invented the term 2nd party for that, but I say invented because the majority of the industry doesn't actually recognise 2nd party as an official term. It has been said multiple times by those in the industry that 2nd party isn't a term used by them.

I know PlayStation uses the term second-party, which Shuhei Yoshida confirmed further and had articles written on the subject. So it doesn't seem like something gamers invented. At least I wouldn't think game companies would adopt a term that gamers invented lol.

This was Yoshida's quote, which is exactly how I've always viewed the matter: “We call second-party when an independent company created the game and funded it or joint funded it, so the IP is still owned by that company. A recent example is Rise of the Ronin by Koei Tecmo. PlayStation published that game so we call it second-party.”

Yeah but Tbf to me he made that quote in 2025, haha, I think the term was still made by gamers but co-opted later by some studios/publishers cause it works, here is what Insomniac said on the matter once.

Insomniac Games: Sony Interactive Entertainment is the publisher of the game. It's 1st Party.

Greg Miller: That's how it works? I thought they had to own the studio to be first party. Wouldn't this be second party?

Insomniac Games: 2nd party doesn't really technically exist except to indicate outside studio doing a 1st party game

Greg Miller asks: So Spidey is First AND Second?

Insomniac responds, with an example for another franchise they developed for Sony

Think of it more as inclusionary. Ratchet is a 1st party game. Insomniac is 2nd party developer.

===

We also used to have people calling things 2nd party simply because the studio wasn't owned, even if the IP was owned by the publisher.

This was Microsoft's stance on the matter back in 2014.

And Insomniac went as far to say this, they too said people made the term up, haha.

Insomniac Games on X: People made 2nd party up to deal with Rare's "status" back in the day. No one really "uses" that in development" / X

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 15 May 2025